GBD Annual Report 2018-19

DOGPATCH & NW POTRERO HILL GREEN BENEFIT DISTRICT
The GBD was
created to design,
improve and
maintain
greenspaces
Dogpatch is getting a lot of press as an “emerging
neighborhood.” But longtime residents (I call them
the homesteaders) know Dogpatch has been a
neighborhood since the 1860s. Worker-housing
Victorians from the century before last still line
the neighborhood’s historic streets. I first knew
the area as the home of Burning Man, of artists
and designers, the Hell’s Angels and various other
border-dwellers, of railroad spurs, warehouses and
vestiges of our industrial past. The homesteaders
embraced the quirkiness, the outer lands feel, the
dogeared buildings, the ragged streets, the abrupt
grade changes, the industrial scale, the warm, sunny
windless weather and the (usually) quiet nights.
But the tsunami of change that has engulfed Mission
Bay and the eastern waterfront has flowed onward
into Dogpatch and Potrero Hill. 2400 Units of housing
have been constructed within the GBD boundaries
since the organization was formed in 2015, with 2600
more in the pipeline. Art galleries, breweries, robotics
A LETTER FROM THE
companies, scooter and self-driving car companies
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
are nestled alongside furniture and bag makers,
JULIE CHRISTENSEN
electricians and iron workers. UCSF now owns almost
6 acres at the district’s north end and has already
added student housing and a psych center there. The
Warriors arena is open. Pier 70 is coming online and
1 the Power Station development is soon to follow. 2
in the district and
to advocate for city
and private sector
improvements that
support a green
and walkable
neighborhood.
GreenBenefit.org
The GBD was formed to help nurture and protect
the homesteaders’ gardens and parks and planted
verges, the do-it-yourself greenspaces that helped
keep the freeways and trains and warehouses at bay.
It was also created to help protect a core sense of
place in the face of intensive change, to help find a
way to meld the ones who were here with those who
just arrived, and to help keep the neighborhood spirit
alive, however it evolves.
We are thrilled to be part of this amazing place, and
grateful to the district property owners who make the
work of the GBD possible.
Thank you!
ANNUAL REPORT 18/19